Cloud vendors adopt Jesuit approach

Beverley Head
Wednesday, 22 February 2012 13:08

The Jesuits famously claimed that if they were able to school a child early, they were guaranteed of his future character and loyalty. Cloud vendors it seems, including Microsoft and local storage cloud Ninefold, are harnessing the approach.

Microsoft and Ninefold have both this week announced extensions to their programmes which provide free cloud services to startup businesses.

Microsoft's BizSpark programme has 25,000 members internationally - 2,500 of which are in Australia. The programme offers startups access to Microsoft tools, an international startup network, and entrepreneurial insights.

BizSpark Plus which was officially launched today in Australia is aimed at business incubators, and through the incubators offers startups up to $60,000 worth of Microsoft Windows Azure cloud services over two years. For the first year startups get access to Azure computer power and storage for free, and for the second year they are charged at 50 per cent of the going rate.

Jay Henningsen, director of Microsoft's emerging business team, who is in Australia to launch the service locally said that; 'Our hope is that we can help them be successful and we will have customers using Windows Azure.'

'Microsoft is a software company. Our ambition is to make software companies successful using our technology.'

Angel Cube, Blue Chilli, Fishburners, Founders Institute, Push Start, StartPad, Start Mate, Startup Weekend and York Butter Factory are the first local incubators to join the BizSpark Plus initiative.